The deleted "Blue Danube" sequence was filmed in the Exhibition Hall designed by Pier Luigi Nervi and completed in 1949 after only eight months of construction. It was updated for use as a hockey rink for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin.
The director did not tell the responsible authorities that he would be using cars in the staircase scene in the palazzo, only "machinery."
The ending was changed to leave open the possibility of a sequel.
The red sports car seen during the opening titles is a Lamborghini Miura which, with a top speed of 170mph, was one of the fastest cars available at the time.
The road used for the climactic cliff-hanger sequence led only to a restaurant. The first day of shooting was a Saturday, brilliantly sunny and the shoot went off without a hitch. On the next day, however, a huge line of cars appeared at the bottom of the road - the restaurant was hugely popular on Sundays. Some disgruntled drivers eventually broke through the police cordon and the shoot had to be aborted. Over the next two weeks it rained steadily and the snowline came down the mountain by approximately 250 feet. By the time the shot was completed, the crew had to sweep snow from the road.
The roof to roof jump was filmed on the roof of the Fiat factory. Some crew members walked off for fear it would end in a fatality and the Italian Fiat workers made the sign of the cross to the stuntman.
The rooftop race track is an actual working part of the Fiat factory that was completed in 1923. The track measures 1680 feet by 260 feet. The five-story building has 16,000,000 square feet of floor space and was once home to 6,000 workers.
The scene between Charlie Croker and the garage owner was entirely improvised between Michael Caine and John Clive.
The screenplay originally was set in London and was to have been a TV show. However the scope of the production was too large for British TV at the time and so the script was purchased for the movie and the setting changed to Turin because it had the most extensive computer-controlled traffic monitoring system in Europe. However Milan had been the original location choice until the producers realized it would be impossible to get a shooting permit.
They filmed a scene for part of the Mini Cooper chase sequence on an ice rink, with the cars gliding past each other to the accompaniment of Strauss's "The Blue Danube". The scene was cut for timing reasons, but was included in the Channel 4 documentary "The Mini Job" which later appeared on the Special Edition video. All DVD releases include the scene as an extra feature.
This is a movie primarily about cars and driving. Michael Caine, the star, could not drive at the time the movie was made, and in fact he is never seen driving a car. The only time in the movie that Charlie Croker is assumed to be driving is the cut between when he picks up his Aston Martin at the garage, and in the next shot we see it arrive outside the hotel. But Michael Caine gets out of a stationary Aston Martin after a further cut. Throughout the drive to Turin and the entire heist, Croker is always a passenger.
When Charlie Crocker gets out of jail, his girlfriend is waiting for him with a car to drive him home and Charlie mentions that it's the car of the ambassador of Pakistan. The actual car was owned by the High Commissioner of Pakistan when the film was produced.
When filming the bus hanging over the cliff, the camera helicopter's downdraft started to tip the bus over. Stunt crew had to hang on to the front of the bus to stop it falling thousands of feet into a reservoir.
When the Minis are being driven onto the coach after the heist, director Collinson himself is standing at the doorway guiding the cars in.